


Should've Seen It In Color

by ThePackWantstheD



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Magic, Memory Magic, Stanley Cup, outside pov
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-22
Updated: 2016-09-22
Packaged: 2018-08-16 15:41:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8108077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThePackWantstheD/pseuds/ThePackWantstheD
Summary: They always explained the show of memories as if it was a slide show, but it was actually a lot more like slipping into the body of every member of your team who had touched it before you. You saw the memory the Cup had gotten from them, their fondness memory, through their eyes. When they spoke, it felt as though it was you speaking even though you couldn't change the words. When they moved, it felt as though it was you moving even though you couldn't change the motions. When they looked at something, it felt as though you were seeing it out of your own eyes even though you couldn't turn to look at anything else. You felt everything they felt in that moment, all the warmth and affection and happiness, as though it was your own.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from Jamey Johnson's "Should've Seen It In Color" which is a fantastic song about memories so.
> 
> Also shoutout to RachelMantegna who betaed this for me.

There wasn't really a good way to prepare a player for what it was like when you touched the Stanley Cup for the first time on your cup day.

The keeper always tried their best to explain it, but the explanation never really lived up to actual experience.

They always explained the show of memories as if it was a slide show, but it was actually a lot more like slipping into the body of every member of your team who had touched it before you. You saw the memory the Cup had gotten from them, their fondness memory, through their eyes. When they spoke, it felt as though it was you speaking even though you couldn't change the words. When they moved, it felt as though it was you moving even though you couldn't change the motions. When they looked at something, it felt as though you were seeing it out of your own eyes even though you couldn't turn to look at anything else. You felt everything they felt in that moment, all the warmth and affection and happiness, as though it was your own.

It was why teams who won the Stanley Cup together were so close, because there was something so achingly intimate about it that it was hard to be distant with someone after that.

The higher ups threw around all sorts of theories about why the Cup picked up the memories during the summer instead of when they touched it on the ice, but the prevailing theory was that people were too preoccupied by the fact that they'd just won the Stanley cup for the cup to pick up on anything else in their mind.

When Geno had picked his cup day, a hundred different people had asked him if he was sure. Was he sure he wanted to go last when the cup would already be loaded with everyone elses memories? Was he sure he would be able to take that kind of emotion? Was he sure it wouldn't overwhelm him?

"Ready?" Pritchard asked.

The two of them were standing alone in a small room with the Cup between them. It was standard procedure to give the players their space when they first touched the cup, to put them in an environment where they would be safe while they cycled through their teammates memories and where they could be alone if all the happiness turned them into giggling, crying messes. The media circus that came along with a cup day would wait until they were done.

Geno gave Pritchard the same answer he'd given everyone who had him if he was sure about taking this cup day. He nodded his head and give a firm, "Yes."

Then he reached forward and set his hands on both side of the cup.

He slipped through his teammates bodies as he went through memory after memory. He felt Beau's leg shaking when he was waiting to be drafted and he felt the euphoria that pounded through him when his name was called. He felt how nervous Sheary was as he bent on one knee to propose to Jordan and the way all of that seeped into an unrestrained joy when she said yes. He felt Flower's exhaustion when he entered Vero's hospital room and how that faded to warm, syrupy affection when he spotted his wife on the bed with a newly born Scarlet in her arms and Estelle sitting with her so she could peer at her sister.

Last time they'd won a cup Sidney's memory had been of his family. It'd been skating at a family skate with Taylor's laughter ringing in his ears and his parents conversation drifting to him.

Geno had expected to see the same memory, or at least a similar one, when he slipped into Sidney's body this time but instead of seeing Sidney's family he saw was confronted with the sight of Claude Giroux. 

* * *

_Claude stood in the kitchen wearing a pair of denim shorts and a Penguins jersey with the C on the chest. He had pulled the jersey up a bit so he could hide his nose and mouth in the collar, but his eyes were peering at you. Given the amount of disgruntlement and disgust in them, you were pretty sure there was a frown on his face._

_"I'm going to have to bath in bleach after this," Claude said, sounding every bit as displeased as he looked. "For like an entire day. I'm going to have to spend an entire day in a bathtub full of bleach. Are you happy, Sidney?"_

_The fondness you felt for him and the pleasure that came with seeing him in your colors was joined by an amusement that bubbled in your chest._

_You couldn't quite hide the laughter in your voice when you nodded and agreed, "I am."_

_"I can't believe your enjoying my pain this much."_

_"You shouldn't have made the bet if you weren't up for the punishment."_

_Claude let out an unhappy sound. "I wasn't supposed to lose."_

_"Yeah well, you don't generally make a bet if you think you're going to lose," you said with a small chuckle. Both of you were quiet for a moment, you admiring the way he looked in your jersey and him looking as though he was highly considering shoving you and your jersey in a fire-pit. As much as you were enjoying this, you didn't really want to make him unhappy so you said, "You can take it off if you want, Claude. I'm not actually going to make you wear it all day."_

_Claude was quiet for a minute before shaking his head. "It's fine. I don't actually mind it that much."_

_"Yeah?" you asked, raising an eyebrow. "Even though you're going to spend all of tomorrow in a bleach bath?"_

_"Well, I'm not a fan of the giant penguin on the front, but it smells like you," Claude said, falsely nonchalant. "So it's not all bad."_

_A smile spread across your lips as the emotions in your chest exploded and expanded out._

_All you could feel was affection and love and warmth and happiness. All because this beautiful boy in front of you was telling you that he didn't mind wearing your jersey._

_A jersey wasn't exactly a ring, but in that moment you couldn't help thinking that maybe someday he could wear one of those for you too._

* * *

There was a barrage of memories after Sidney, including his own which involved reliving the first time he'd held Nikita, and when he snapped out of it he felt like all of the emotions he'd felt while watching their memories were pulsing through his chest. It was everything from warm familial love to the sharp edges of desire he'd gotten from one of his younger teammates.

"Alright?" Pritchard asked.

"Yeah," Geno said. He took a deep breath, trying to get a handle on the emotions that were lingering in his chest. He tried to sort what he was actually feeling from what was just residual feeling from the memories.

Pritchard watched him for a minute before nodding. "Alright. I'm going to step out and make sure everything's ready for us to come through."

"Okay."

As Pritchard turned to leave the room, Geno reached for the water bottle he'd brought into the room with him and took a deep drink.

He could understand why people found this overwhelming. It was like feeling every positive emotion in existence at once.

Geno took another deep breath before shifting his focus from all of the positive emotions pounding under his skin to the confusion and hurt that laid buried under it.

He plucked his phone out of his pocket and texted Sidney the question that was nagging at the back of his mind, _Why didn't you tell me?_

That was the only thing Geno could think about when he thought about Sidney's memory.

He didn't care that Sidney was in love with their biggest rival, he cared that Sidney hadn't told him about it even though the relationship was serious enough that Sidney was thinking about marrying Claude. He'd always told Sidney everything, he'd confided in Sidney so much over just the last season when everything was going on with Anna and her pregnancy, and now he was finding out that Sidney didn't trust him with the information. It hurt quite a bit.

Only a few moments had passed before his phone chimed with an answer.

He supposed it wasn't that surprising. If Sidney had left this memory in the cup, then he'd have been fielding questions about it all summer and he would have been expecting Geno's message even with the time message.

 _It wasn't about you_ , Sidney's text message read. _It's about me. It's about having something that isn't hockey._

And that...that made an enormous amount of sense.

Sidney was one of those people who had dedicated their entire being to hockey, whose life had been about hockey since the moment he first tried on a pair of hockey skates, and Geno could understand Sidney wanting to have part of his life that wasn't hockey.

Maybe Claude played hockey as well, but just that one memory was enough for Geno to know that Sidney's relationship with Claude wasn't _about_  hockey.

It was about the fact that Sidney had found someone that would live in his giant house with him once his bones gave out and he had to retire, the same way that Geno knew that even when he was old and living in Russia permanently again that Anna and Nikita would be there with him.

Every player in the league gave hockey their now, but they all needed something to hang on to when it was over as well.

 _Ok._ He sent. He followed it up with a second message that read, _Flyers still suck, but I send nice wedding gift when time_.

**Author's Note:**

> 1) So I was looking at all of the fun the Cup had this summer and it got me thinking about Cup Magic and hence this fic!
> 
> 2) I always show Geno finding about the relationship. I'm not really sure why? I quite enjoy Sidney's relationship with Fleury and Letang as well, there's just something about Geno and Sidney's friendship that makes it so easy to write stuff like this?
> 
> 3) Also!! While I was pretty sure Geno was the last person with the cup this summer, I'm not 1000% sure so I'm sorry if I accidentally forgot your fav Penguin. 
> 
> 4) It was maybe a little risky to go second person for the actual memory but I wanted to show everything that Sidney/Geno was feeling and to refer to them in third person just seemed weird when its two people actually experiencing the memory? 
> 
> 5) Honestly this is like the second claude/sid fic I've written in two days bc I'm insanely inspired just by seeing their faces near each other. There might be more this tournament? There might not. I don't know.


End file.
